From Mark Williams
Five of the six regular riders from the Rovers Saturday Group 2 – Andy, Justin, Jason, Tim and myself – made the annual pilgrimage to London Fields for this year’s Dunwich Dynamo. Jo decided to sit this one out, although judging by subsequent FOMO conversations, she may have regretted that decision! This was my fourth Dynamo, the first being over ten years ago, and somehow it never gets old. There’s something rather magical about setting off with thousands of other cyclists as London settles down for the night, then watching the miles tick by as darkness gives way to dawn.
The Dynamo isn’t a race and that’s exactly what makes it special. It’s more like a moving overnight festival. Bikes are decorated with fairy lights, odd bicyles, fancy dress and enough glow sticks to rival a music festival. Along the route, an army of wonderful volunteers keep sleepy cyclists going with tea, coffee, homemade cakes and bacon rolls at village halls and scout huts that stay open through the night. It’s impossible not to smile as you roll into another food stop at 2 am wondering why you’re doing this, only to leave 20 minutes later convinced it’s the best idea you’ve ever had.
Of course, simply riding to Dunwich wasn’t quite enough. We decided to carry on afterwards and ride all the way back to Colchester, turning it into everybody’s longest ever ride. This was nothing compared to Julie & Dave who we bumped into at the start and had already cycled down to London! Also spotted another old friend, DD brings them all out of the woodwork, who was just completing down from Dunwich. And we wonder why his nick name is Nutter!
Mother Nature was certainly on our side overnight, treating us to a fine tailwind that pushed us all the way to the Suffolk coast. After a well-earned breakfast in Dunwich and, unfortunately no traditional dip in the North Sea this year, we pointed our bikes towards home, and the return leg. A relentless headwind that seemed to strengthen every time someone mentioned how much further there was to go.
There was, however, one small victory. Last year’s ride ended rather expensively when I found one of Sudbury’s infamous potholes and destroyed a wheel. This year I was paying rather more attention and I’ve ordered my “I survived the Sudbury Hill” t-shirt! By the time we rolled back into Colchester we were tired, windswept and a few with baboon bum saddle rashes, but also carrying the quiet satisfaction that comes from completing a challenge we’d probably all describe as “great fun”… just not necessarily until a few days later!
A big thank you also goes to Nick Swainston, who very kindly transported our bikes to Stratford, where we met him after travelling up by train. It saved us a great deal of logistics and made the whole adventure much easier to organise.
Sadly, the story didn’t quite end there. Just a few days later, devastating fires swept across the Dunwich heathland, destroying large areas of the precious wildlife habitat that we’d cycled through only days before. It was a sobering reminder of how special—and fragile—that landscape is. If you’d like to support the recovery effort, donations can be made here: Dunwich Heath recovery fundraiser.
From Julie Taplin:
This was my first Dynamo, while it was David’s second. I’d always been put off entering because I love my sleep. The thought of voluntarily giving up a night in my own bed, getting cold as the sun went down, and trying to stay awake until sunrise didn’t exactly sound like fun. I had visions of nodding off on the bike somewhere around 3am and waking up in a hedge!
Thankfully, none of that happened.
Once we were rolling, there simply wasn’t time to get sleepy. Between concentrating on the road in the dark, following an almost endless ribbon of red rear lights for the full 111 miles, remembering to eat regularly, and soaking up the amazing atmosphere, the night seemed to fly by. The Dynamo really is unlike any other ride I’ve done.
As Mark mentioned, David and I decided to cycle to the start as well as ride home afterwards, bringing our total distance to just under 220 miles, completed in around 22 hours. Mentally, though, it never felt like a 220-mile ride because we split it into three very different stages: the ride to the start, the Dynamo itself, and the journey home. Somehow that was much less intimidating than staring at a single 220-mile route on my Garmin.
Talking of Garmin, I discovered two features that I’ve found really helpful. The first was the drink and eat reminders (why had I never found these before?!). The second was an endurance screen that estimates how much further you can ride at your current pace and effort. I found myself checking it regularly and thinking, “Well, Garmin reckons I can do this, so who am I to argue?” It’s probably not a foolproof pacing strategy, but it worked!
We had a bit of a headwind on the rides to and from the event, but the Dynamo itself couldn’t have been kinder. We enjoyed a gentle tailwind for virtually the whole route, and the temperature never dropped below 13°C, so I stayed in short sleeves until we stopped for food at around 3am.
Recovery, however, was another matter. It took me the best part of a week to feel human again after my longest-ever ride and a night without sleep. There was definitely some learning in terms of planning for food/water stops at 6am on a Sunday morning! Was it worth it? Absolutely. I’d sign up again tomorrow.
As Mark mentioned, it was so sad to see beautiful Dunwich in the news a few days later for the most sad and tragic reason. Love and strength to all the residents, emergency services and friends of Dunwich Heath who are affected by the fires.